Sheet glass manufacturing generally requires three steps; melting of raw material, forming the melted glass into the proper shape, i.e., glass sheets otherwise known as lites, and finally shaping the glass sheets into a final shape which is satisfactory for the user of the glass sheets. The final shaping step includes edging, or seaming, the glass sheets to strengthen the glass sheets and make the glass sheet more manageable for handling operations. Seaming a glass sheet, otherwise known as arissing, involves removing the sharp edges of glass sheets by grinding them away. Seaming the glass sheet makes it less dangerous to handle and also reduces the number of microcracks formed if the glass sheet is later tempered. The discussion herein relates to the process of seaming of glass sheets.
Glass sheet seaming is typically done one glass sheet or lite at a time by utilizing a grinding wheel which has groove(s) formed therein. The formed groove(s) create a shape on the edge of the glass sheet that mirrors the groove. Unfortunately, there are several problems with the known techniques.
Because one sheet is processed at a time, throughput is compromised and productivity is limited. It would be desirable to increase the throughput of lites through a seaming process thereby increasing productivity. Also, the position of the glass at the seaming station needs to be carefully controlled. It would be desirable to have a system that can accommodate and process randomly positioned glass sheets at the seaming station. In addition, for a very large glass sheet, the time it takes to carry out the seaming process at least doubles. It would also be desirable to reduce the time it takes to seam large glass sheets.
In addition, particulates (e.g., chips, glass dust and/or particles) created during the seaming process can get imbedded within the grinding wheel's grooves which can limit the effectiveness of the grinding wheel as well as potentially damaging the glass sheet itself. It would be desirable to reduce the amount of debris exposed to the seaming head and glass sheet in order to increase its effectiveness and reduce defective product.